FUNDING cuts to adult learning courses are taking their toll across Oxfordshire with roll numbers dwindling as fees rise.

Subsidies for recreational courses, such as flower arranging, art and photography, have been diverted to the Government's new priorities skills training and vocational courses for underachieving 16- to 19-year-olds and adults with no formal qualifications.

The four per cent cut in the adult learning budget has forced further education colleges and the local authority to increase fees, leading to a dip in enrolments.

This year, Oxfordshire's funding was cut by £500,000, resulting in fewer courses to choose from. From September, further cuts will see almost 40 per cent of those on free evening courses being expected to pay and others facing sharp fee increases.

Oxfordshire County Council receives almost all of its funding for adult learning through its contract with the Learning and Skills Council.

Brian Hodgson, a retired college lecturer and former Labour councillor, is concerned that the council may have to double some course fees next year and argues that some courses, such as lip-reading, should be prioritised in the reduced budget.

He said: "In Oxfordshire, there are currently 213 learners on lip-reading classes. Where fees have gone up elsewhere, it has led to a lack of enrolment and classes being cancelled."

The county council's media officer for adult learning, Barbara McSweeney, was not aware of the funding issue when asked how the courses had been affected by the cuts so far.

She later said that a report on the matter would go before cabinet in June, but did not know who had written it and what it would contain.

At Abingdon and Witney College, one class fee has almost doubled, prompting its tutor to predict that there will be no adult leisure courses within two years.

Brian Eastoe, who has taught wood carving at the college for six years, said: "If fewer people enrol and college costs continue to rise, there will be a downward spiral, with courses being chopped." Joan Damerell, 71, of Godfrey Close, Abingdon, is in her third year on the wood-carving course, but this year could be her last. She said: "I would not be able to afford the course but for financial help from my husband. Now, with the fee going up to £99 for a shorter course, I will have to think very carefully about enrolling again."

The college's director of development, Steve Billcliffe, said the college had delivered more learning for adults and young people than it had received funding for.

He said: "The subsidy we previously enjoyed for adult recreational courses has gone, and as a result we are having to ask people to pay more for those courses."